A group of scientists and advocates called today for new, more aggressive efforts to restore the bay, saying the current approach has not worked and the troubled estuary is declining, not improving.
The group -- more than a dozen scientists, policy specialists and activists -- presented its recommendations to the head of the Environmental Protection Agency's bay program office in Annapolis on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the formal launch of the bay restoration effort.
"We believe the voluntary and collaborative approach we have had in place has simply not worked," said Walter Boynton, a veteran scientist with the University of Maryland's Chesapeake Bay laboratory in Solomons.
In a statement, the group said that population growth and development have overwhelmed cleanup progress. Water quality is declining in much of the bay, rather than improving, the statement pointed out.
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Talbot Preservation Alliance, Inc. Mailng Address: 210 Marlboro Road PMB 31-208 Easton, MD 21601 info@talbotpreservation.org |
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OUR MISSION: MANAGED GROWTH |
WYE MILLS PLAN DEFEATED!On October 8, 2009 the Queen Anne’s County Planning and Zoning Commission voted 4-2 against the proposed Wye Mills Plan.The plan called for 1 Million square feet of commecial development. The Maryland Department of Planning, Talbot County and Caroline County all opposed the plan. Queen Anne's Conservation, ESLC, Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage, Talbot Preservation Alliance, Friends of Wye River, and others all opposed the plan as well. Collectively, everyone's efforts made the difference. Thank you to everyone who sent in an email, made a call to the Planning Commission, or wrote a letter. Your efforts on this matter made all the difference!» Wye Mills Community Plan A Town Meeting was held on Monday Sept. 21st. Info regarding this meeting will be posted soon. The Michaels Development Corporation & Talbot County Housing Authority will presented information about a proposed high density development on Port St. on the site of WCEI radio. The housing (workforce, Section 8 and low income senior housing) would be a mix of garden units & townhouses. PROPOSED # of UNITS - 202 ACREAGE 10.9 ACRES A crucial financial component for the senior housing would be a financial commitment from the Town of Easton of $1.4 Million over a period of 2-3 years. While the proposed plan would meet Easton’s goal for ‘infill’ development ( building within the Town rather than sprawling out) the traffic, tax and extreme density raise serious questions. » EASTON COMPREHENSIVE PLAN » UPDATE » On Thursday October 15th, Easton P&Z is slated to review and no doubtedly pass the Easton Comprehensive Plan. We (TPA) will then go over the draft with a fine tooth comb and will be posting points shortly, so we can start to rally the troops for the Town Council review. The Easton Comprehensive Plan process is not quite complete, as the Town Council still needs to vote, hopefully this fall, but there is some good news now! Rocks and Rauch, Easton Club East developers who had purchased adjacent property, have sold that property back to Mr. Brooks, the farmer who sold it to them some time ago. The significance of this action is that unrelenting citizen opposition to rapid residential growth made it clear to them that more homes in that area would not be allowed in the near future. So, THANK YOU for appearing at hearings, speaking up and writing letters. It made a positive difference! DRAFT CONCERNS: Although perhaps 100 citizens attended biweekly meetings to give input, and many more answered on-line survey questions, much of this input was ignored! WHY??? • In last year’s survey questions eleven and twelve regarding annexation priorities, the majority of respondents indicated that they liked the current three tiered system best, yet this disappeared from the current draft, and now priorities two and three are merged into one big category called “Future Growth Area”. The citizens clearly indicated that they want the current priority system. This change is unacceptable! The Planning Staff should change the draft to reflect the wishes of the people it serves. • In an early meeting on the comp plan last year, the question was asked of the 50+ citizen attendees if they opposed more annexation/growth. Literally all hands went up. The merge of priorities 2 and 3 into “Future Growth Area” has the potential of speeding up growth/annexation because larger portions can be annexed/developed sooner. The citizens clearly indicated they are against this. Again, unacceptable since it does not reflect overwhelming citizen sentiment! It should be changed to do so. • In addition, the survey, in question three, asked about the ideal population for Easton. 72% said it is just about right as is. Unacceptable again; the draft fosters growth at a rapid pace. A change in the draft is required! • There is, within the town right now, enough land available to build 2673 dwelling units (chart p. 53) which would raise our population by 40%. Why does the draft facilitate quicker and larger annexations, again ignoring citizen input? It must be changed! And what about sewer capacity for the Hospital? We must reserve adequate wastewater capacity for the needs of the new hospital campus near the Community Center. The thirty permitted uses of the proposed hospital complex will need a lot of wastewater capacity, yet already possible residential and business uses could use up to 50% of Easton’s remaining wastewater capacity. Easton has run out of wastewater capacity before. Let’s not overbuild now and risk losing our hospital in the future. Concerned about these issues? Write to the Planning and Zoning Commission: John Atwood, Chairman: atwood@goeaston.net Linda Cheezum: lcheezum@talbot-bank.com Tom Moore: tommore@goeaston.net Steve Periconi: periconi@yahoo.com Dan Swann: dapper@goeaston.net » Easton Comprehensive PlanState-mandated reviews of Comprehensive Plans are required of all counties and municipalities every six years. Easton is now undergoing its Comp Plan review, likely a year long process to be completed in late winter or early spring 2009. Comp Plans provide the underlying guidelines for zoning and other policies, and are often cited in courts of law. To gather state-required public input, there have been three meetings on growth and three on transportation. These two chapters of the Comp Plan are of most general interest to the public. It is unclear whether more public meetings will take place and on what subjects. Read more» Village Green: Federal Stimulus Threatened to Overrun Small Town with Sprawl by F. Kaid Benfield - The Huffington Post May 15, 2009 Just last week, my NRDC colleague Nancy Stoner pointed out that the federal program that provides water infrastructure to local communities is essentially subsidizing sprawl. This is because the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (an atrocious name if I've ever heard one) "continues to fund new sewage treatment plants and new sewage and stormwater collection systems in greenfields, i.e., currently undeveloped or working landscapes." Read more » Missed the program "Poisoned Waters"? Click here to view the broadcast from April 21st. To View an excerpt of the program, "Bay In Trouble: The Manure Problem" click here Published: Friday, February 20, in the Star Democrat
In Wednesday's Star, a local political group alleges that an expansion of Talbot County's shoreline buffer, from 25 to 60 feet, would be a "taking ... without any scientific evidence that [it] would have any positive effect on water quality." Read more» Shoreline buffers needed in Talbot By TOM HUGHES Guest Comment Published: Friday, February 20, 2009 8:53 AM CST
There have been several offerings in this newspaper recently concerning the shoreline buffer issue, which have been comprised mostly of misinformation and misdirection. Having worked on this issue for more than seven years, I will try to set the record straight. Read more »
» Bailout for Trappe East Developer?The President of the Trappe Town Council, Don English, has submitted an application for $18,000,000 in federal stimulus funding for a new wastewater treatment plant that would serve a huge new development in farm fields across Route 50—but not one current Trappe resident. Counter to the objectives of stimulus funding, this money would not create new jobs, it would merely substitute our taxpayer dollars for those of the developer. Read more » Trappe East Developments & InformationWith the potential infusion of federal stimulus funds, Trappe East has in recent months moved to the forefront of controversy. Read the Trappe East Overview for more information » Scientists Say Bay Program A FailureTwenty-five years after the launch of the Chesapeake Bay Program, a distinguished group of scientists and activists have labeled it a failure. They state that the Clean Water Act has not been enforced, and the Chesapeake Bay Agreement has not been obeyed. The group is calling for more aggressive, mandatory actions to reduce pollution. Read more » Easton Appeals Board Rejects Parking Lot in Stream BufferOn January 13, 2009 the Town of Easton’s Board of Zoning Appeals rejected a request to build a parking lot within Easton’s 100 perennial stream buffer, one of the first challenges to the buffer since it was established in May 2008. TPA presented evidence at the hearing urging the Board to deny the variance. Read more» » Eastern Shore Residents Concerned About Sprawl, Growth
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Want hospital to stay in Easton? Get involved now This is an appeal to community leaders and citizens to step up to be counted in what I consider to be the single greatest economic, quality-of-life, and health-and-safety issue I have encountered during almost 25 years as an elected official in Talbot County. Read more»
Sign the Petition! Let the Boards of Shore Health and University of Maryland Medical Systems know our hospital is important to our community.
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Easton Comprehensive Plan State-mandated reviews of Comprehensive Plans are required of all counties and municipalities every six years. Easton is now undergoing its Comp Plan review, likely a year long process to be completed in late winter or early spring 2009. Comp Plans provide the underlying guidelines for zoning and other policies, and are often cited in courts of law. To gather state-required public input, there have been three meetings on growth and three on transportation. These two chapters of the Comp Plan are of most general interest to the public. It is unclear whether more public meetings will take place and on what subjects. The 2002 Comp Plan may be viewed on the Town of Easton website. www.town-eastonmd.com/ and go to Departments and then Comprehensive Plan. Besides the public meetings there was a survey that took place in June, also viewable on the Town website. To view all related files for the Easton Comprehensive Plan, click here and you will be taken to our archives section» |
| 'Big-Box' Stores Leave More Than A Void - This article was originally included into our TPA website in 2004, when Home Depot and Lowe's were locking in to Easton as their target. Now, even 4 years later, this article is still timely and gives a very important insight to the future of Talbot County. Read this article from Washington Post.com » |
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